How Well Will The New Nissan Leaf Sell?
The New Nissan Leaf.
Nissan have just announced the prices of their new Nissan Leaf electric car.
With a starting price of £24,000 that puts it about £2,000 dearer than one of its main competitors the Toyota Prius and further away from the pockets of your average motorist.
Long term mass production of the Leaf is scheduled to commence in Sunderland in February in 2013 following an initial production run in Japan, the forecasted annual production is 50,000 units which will be manufactured on the existing production lines already producing the Nissan Note in the north east.
So what does the price of the Nissan Leaf say to all those motorists who would like to be (more) environmental friendly driving an electric car but who can't join the movement because of the high price tag?
To put the Leaf into a size classification some experts are stating the comparable fossil fuel engine size should be either a 1.0litre or max. 1.2 litre turbo unit.
There is already a very sizeable range of fossil fuel vehicles, some with very good environment credentials, which are up to £10,000 cheaper than the Leaf, e.g. the Seat Ibiza 1.4TDI Ecomotive, Ford Fiesta 1.6TDCI, Volkswagen Polo 1.4 Bluemotion and Mini Cooper 1.6D, the first three all emit less 100g/km while the Cooper just edges upwards to 104g/km, so apart from those who have good wedges of the folding stuff tucked away in banks and bonds, who will be the buyers?
Nissan also state that the battery pack life is an expected 5-10 years, which is no guarantee it will last that long and a replacement pack could be as costly as putting in a new engine, not the most encouraging sales patter considering a normal petrol engine should have a life of more than double that.
The sales patter for the Nissan Leaf states running costs should be cheaper than a comparable fossil fuelled car in the long term but who is going to buy a second hand 3 year old car with a possible battery pack replacement looming.
If environmentalists and motor manufacturers want to convince the public that electric cars or hybrid cars are more environment friendly than their fossil fuelled cousins should they not be producing figures to show the comparable carbon dioxide generated in producing the all-electric or hybrid vehicles as against the petrol and diesel models they produce, surely we should have access to this vital piece of information.
The production of the electric car is gaining momentum worldwide but for mass appeal the cost of an electric car has to be within the reach of the majority which is not the case with the Nissan Leaf.
Bill Williams
http://thecarhub.net
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